The storm calms almost as suddenly as it arose, leaving a buzzing in the team’s ears from the abrupt silence after so much tumult.

The night has brought a bit of cool with it (though not much), and a bit of a breeze. The waters themselves are still roiling from the tempest just passed, but with far less intensity.

Even without the cloud cover of the storm, night has fallen fully, imposing a -4 obscurement penalty on relevant rolls (unless offset by powers, visual enhancements, racial abilities, etc.).

The Scrappiest Place on Earth

The team gets across, but it’s a close thing. The combined martial prowess of Deezy, Sierra, Corad, Jameson, and the mysterious pilot of the Predator Power Armor, Miguel, keep the beasts at bay. White Castle’s encyclopedic knowledge of the world comes in handy as he actually managers to charm one of the summoned creatures, while Norona and Toshiro provide support to their companions, calling out weaknesses and directions. Kuikku gets a bit wet in the action, but does not get eaten, so that’s a solid win all around.

The Mountaineer, unfortunately, comes out worse for the wear, as its missile launcher suffered serious damage from the jaws of a deinosuchus.

Technical Difficulty: -4 to Use Missile Launcher

1d6 = 6: 6
Missile launcher suffers a Severe Failure, imposing a -4 to all attempts at using it.

As the team leaves the deepest water behind, the storm fades and the last deinosuchus disappears beneath the waves, seeming to dissolve into shadow.

The vehicles’ wheels touch solid ground, though the water is far from gone. It sits about waist-high, making movement difficult outside of the vehicles, but far from impossible. Terrain counts as difficult ground due to the water.

The vegetation thins out, leaving you with decent sight lines for the first time in hours. Less than a mile or so away, you see the outline of a medieval-style castle jutting out of the water against the night sky. The first floor or two appear completely submerged, and the remainder of the structure stretches up hundreds of feet into the sky.

The terrain slopes downwards in the general direction of the castle, with the water getting deeper as you get closer. Off to the party’s right about a hundred yards away is a sharp rise in the ground and what looks like a man-made opening leading underground. The entrance is only partially submerged, and it’s more than wide enough for both vehicles to enter side-by-side.

Entrance

Like this, but with water.

Underground Entrance.jpg (70.23 KiB) Viewed 208 times

But before you can head towards the underground entrance, a mighty roar splits the air, followed by another!

Off to your left, perhaps 40 yards (20 game inches) distant, six human figures arise from the water. It’s hard to make out, given the darkness and their distance, but two of the figures blow on horns, each of which emits the roar of a separate dinosaur, and then throws something into the water. The other four figures stand protectively near the two horn-blowers, hefting shields and axes or swords.

Another roar splits the air, and the waters begin to swirl as a dinosaur bursts out of the ground! A moment later, another follows.

Where there had been nothing but undisturbed water, now two massive dinosaurs stand. As with the crocodile creatures, wisps of darkness leak from these dinosaurs eyes and mouths, and tendrils of it rise from their backs like steam.

One, a Tyrannosaur, and the other, a Triceratops, each roar and begin charging towards the team, closing the distance quickly!

T-Rex and Tri-Top.jpg (10.12 KiB) Viewed 207 times

(Like this, except in a swamp and the T-Rex and Tri-Top are friends and want to eat/stomp/gore you guys.)

Action!
Action Cards:

Norona: 7S

Toshiro: 10H

Sierra: 5C

Deezy: KD

White Castle: 7D

Conrad/Jameson: 6H

Miguel: 5S, 6S

Kuikku: Red Joker!

Kuikku drew the red joker, so everyone gets a Benny and Kukku adds +2 to Trait and damage rolls this round.

You may choose to have your characters start any distance from the dinos; they are running towards you, so just narrate how close you’d like to be.

The players will all go first (in any order they choose) and then the bad guys.

“Dinosaurs again?” Sierra said. She focused, and her eyes glowed with fire a bit as she began to see a bit into the infrared spectrum, allowing her to see in the darkness better. Then her fire wings erupted from her back and she launched out of the hatch and into the air. The dinosaurs wouldn’t be able to get her up here. Dinos couldn’t fly.

Turncoat: Your hero somehow convinces or bribes a minor foe to perform a small favor—such as helping the hero escape, revealing the location of the “boss,” etc."

Enemy: Play at the beginning of the game session. A villain of the GM’s choice becomes your character’s sworn enemy and you may not soak wounds caused directly by him. Starting now, you draw an extra Adventure Card each game session until the enemy is “retired.”

Rally: Play to cause all allies in sight and/or hearing to immediately lose their Shaken status.

Tale Teller: Your hero must tell a story of his group’s deeds to an audience of some sort (roleplay this) and make a Persuasion roll. If successful, the listeners become friendly and helpful to the entire party.

Parley: All characters cease fighting and listen to the hero speak for at least 30 seconds. Others may only take defensive actions during this time. This has no effect on beasts and other creatures that cannot understand the speaker.

Toshiro doesn't hesitate when the dinosaurs appear, though in his mind, the beings who can summon such creatures are more dangerous than the creatures themselves. The thought of opening a dialogue with the newcomers doesn't even cross his mind as he open fires, rotating the turret up across the Tyrannosaurus's head and then back down toward the two summoners. The rounds tear into the Tyrannosaurus, but whether the shots cause actual damage or just infuriate it is not immediately apparent. The summoner in the middle of the arc gets lucky, as bullet strike water all around her but fail to make direct contact. Her friend is not nearly so lucky. The shots pound in his body and shoot out the other side, tearing gaping holes in the summoners torso and spraying a thick red mist into the area around him.

While Toshiro's hands focus on the shots a pair of cybernetic arms unfold from between where his ribs would be and reach up, opening the hatch to the Mountaineer and, once the shot is finished, pulling Toshiro up onto the roof. As Toshiro's real hands eject and replace the chip in his head with the martial prowess one from his pocket, the mechanical arms draw Retribution, who psychically sings praises at being released in Toshiro's head.

Now slay these foul beasts and the savages that would dare to stand against your might!

Norona peers at the newly summoned dinosaurs through his Lightforce TW goggles. Seeing they are the form from the restless spirits of deceased animals engages his sensibilities. "Putting the dead into service is truly an act of darkness."

Accelerating straight toward the T-Rex Norona suddenly leaps off of his hover cycle in mid-air and transforms into a massive dragon and flies directly toward the huge dinosaur.

Deezy pops out of the roof hatch of the MHQ again, the Omniblaster set firmly against the epaulet of her armor. For a moment she sights down the barrel at the oncoming T-rex, but when she sees Norona going after it in draconic form (and WOW when could he do THAT??!!) she shifts her crosshairs to the Triceratops. And boy, she didn't want her shiny new headquarters to be on the wrong end of a charge from THAT guy! So she introduced him to a blast from the new, improved Omniblaster Mk2!

A red line briefly lit up between her weapon and the massive, flared head of the dinosaur. A laser beam that cut an ionized path through the atmosphere. The gun in its normal mode could follow that up with a huge bolt of charged particles that would strip atoms away from the target. But if she juiced it up a bit...

Oops! Goggles! Deezy quickly slapped her goggles down over her helmet faceplate, and hit the firing catch.

The world turned white.

With a hideous buzzing noise, and an electrostatic field strong enough that she could feel her arms prickling right through her armor, the Omniblaster discharged a bolt of lightning that twisted and writhed through the air...following the path of the laser beam to impact the Trike's noggin. An instant later thunder rolled across the battlefield as the air itself recoiled from the blast.

Hindrances
Overconfident (Major): Never give up...NEVER SURRENDER!
Greedy (Minor): Building something like this is going to take a load of bread to capitalize...where’m I gonna get the money?!
Habit (Minor): Too hyperactive!

Kuikku sighs in exasperation as he climbs out on top of the Mountaineer. I had Deezy put that water enchantment thinking we would be dealing with inches of water. Ankles or low calf, not thigh or chest. I am so tired of this swamp. He sees the bullets bounce of the T-Rex and Deezy's blast obscure the T-top. Knowing he has no opportunity to close to the barbarians fast enough instead he goes for the lizards. He triggers his dark vision and summons his sword, just one because he knows those things will be tough. Leaping from the top of the Mountaineer towards them he then slogs close enough to get a swing at the T-Rex. The blade strikes a solid hit. Kuikku then triggers his deflection and starts screaming and splashing in the water hoping to keep both dinos distracted.

HEad shots are tricky and shooting at apples while the target is missing, is near insanity but Castle can't Brainiac his way out of this one. Dinosaurs can't be reasoned with, even if 100,000 years should have imparted some wisdom and intellect.

Mark IX has 30(15) MDC armor= “shaken” and 3 wounds
1 out of control roll for meeting vehicle’s toughness: 8 - vehicle skids
Critical hit for first wound: 6 Chassis: The vehicle suffers a hit in the body with no special effects.
Critical hit for second wound: 5 Controls: The control system is hit. Until a Repair roll is made, the vehicle can only perform turns to one side (1–3 left, 4–6 right). This may prohibit certain maneuvers as well.
Critical hit for third wound: Chassis: The vehicle suffers a hit in the body with no special effects.

Tri-Tops takes 7 damage and 11 AP from the collision

Dropped a retroactive Benny for forgetting to roll to Unshake.

The Klattatech Mobile HQ shudders and skids sideways in the water with the incredible impact. The triceratops tears into the armored vehicle and through the side, opening a massive hole and showering the battlefield with shrapnel and parts!

For Deezy and Castle

You each take 7 damage.

Deezy needs to make an Agility roll at -2 or be thrown and take 2d6 additional damage.
Castle needs to make his Agility roll at -4 or be similarly thrown and take 2d6 additional damage.

Meanwhile, the Tyrannosaur attacks Norona Dragon!

Fighting

Fighting 8
Fighting 5 (spent 2 Bennies and couldn’t get above a 5!)

Hit: 12 (str) + 2 (damage) AP 8

Unfortunately for the Rex, it is not able to get it’s jaws in place for a solid enough hold on Norona, who managers to slip away essentially unscathed.

Round Two Action Cards

Sierra 2D

Deezy JH

Norona KC

Castle 9S

Conrad/Jameson 5C

Kuikku JC

Toshiro QS

Miguel 5C and 6D

Rex 10D

Tri-Top QD

Eco Wizard 4S

Mooks QC

Norona pulled the high card, so the players go first, in any order they choose.

Setting down on the ground Norona twists and turns away from the snapping jaws of the mighty T-Rex. He knows the animal is powerful but also only has one main weapon, it's massive mouth! Using the ability of his dragon form to fly Norona goes up to avoid the blow then lands on the creature's back digging in with mass dragon claws and giving a mighty roar for effect.

While he doesn't have a radio, his voice still works in this form, "It is time for these souls to rest!"